ac vs mana (yes,again)

i know this has been discussed, i probably spent 20 rl hours reading different opinions on it, but...
im currently siting at like 20k hps 15k mana 3300 ac self buffed. like a month ago i switched out 4 90/90 augs for 25 ac augs and it seemed to make a huge difference in beign able to take hits, and only cost me 360 mana. and 400ish hps.

now last week i swapped 2 of the ac augs back for the mana ones and dropepd 50 worn ac which is like 80 ac i guess and depsite the general consensus , ive noticaed a huge difference in tanking ability on the fortress mobs. so im considering swapping back

what you guys think a 25ac aug is worth what in mana/hps ? how do you value the 3 when aug hunting ? like i had thought unless its 125/125 + id keep the ac but ..im confused.

Re: ac vs mana (yes,again)

The return on ac over the soft cap (iirc is 2800ish) and u really only get about 1.4 of the actual ac. My brain cells are not what they use to be but I am in the ballpark. It is a personal choice really as far as augs go and ac. Do you raid? A casual player? Soloist? Those all come into factors. Also your aa's as well. Defensives, shield block, etc etc. I personally could careless about ac or even Hp for that matter because there is tons of buffs auras that give you all that. Now mana there is very few: familiars, fellowship campfires, clicky (ie hulcor, tacvii, sof earring, etc etc, and c. My own opinion for raids mana > then all because with these mobs hitting for 6k+ you gonna be dead anyways. Every bit of mana does help on those nigths dps seem to be nonexsistent. That is my 2 cents...bottom line really it is how you play your toon really. If you raid though..it is what is beneficial to the raid force because without them you wouldn't get upgrades etc.

I will say my AC has kept me alive on a lot of hits (as well as the mods I've chosen).

What the actual value ranking is I can't really say. I wouldn't personally trade off some of my augs for pure AC augs (I did have a 20ac 60hp aug about 6 months ago in a type 7 cultural slot though), but that was my personal choice and may not be anothers.

In my augs, I do have 9 augs that have AC in them, and purposely keep some of the lower ones like Fabled Lucid shard and Dain MMM Coldain aug until I replace them with higher AC ... plus both of my shield augs have AC in them as well. So I did look for a balance on some of them. But for a 150/150 aug, I would drop/remove a 90/90 with 5 or 10 ac if that helps at all.

Re: ac vs mana (yes,again)

If you have reached the AC cap I would certainly chose mana over armor class. With the possible exception of augments that fit in shields, being that any AC added there gives a bonus to the AC cap. Was trying to explain this to some friends, found this chart that might better clarify.

There is a point for every class that any further increase in overall AC results in only a fraction of benefit from that amount of AC. If your class AC softcap is 100, and you increase your AC to 101, for that 'ONE' over your softcap you are not actually mitigating incoming dmg by the full 'ONE', but a fraction of that 'ONE'. So your actual AC would be like 100.35 (These numbers are just examples and not actual figures, I just used 100 as a easy example).

Now, if that 'ONE' AC was put into your Shield, you would then gain the full benefit from it. Any AC that you put into your shield raises your SOFTCAP by that amount. So with my example, where 100 is the theoretical softcap, now with that 'ONE' AC on your shield, your new SOFTCAP is 101.

Re: ac vs mana (yes,again)

thanks for info.

its just hard to rational trading like 25ac for 90mana ...cause if you inflate that you must ask would 250 ac be better than 900 mana? that 250 on your sheet will end up like 375 or so ac compared to 900 mana...

but i did drop 2 ac augs for mana augs anyway and split the difference heh

Do we have an idea where our softcap is in relation to tower mobs? I have heard anything over the 4k level yields negligible returns, with only shield AC at that point really adding anything. Does that sound correct?